- Xevi Pujolar leaves and will probably be replaced by Rob Smedley as a Chief Race Engineer

- David Wheater, Deputy Head of Aerodynamics at Lotus is rumoured to join the team, with possibility of taking the role of Head of Aerodynamics as Williams

- Jakob Andreasen, who worked recently as a Chief Race Engineer at Force India, and earlier as a Race Engineer for Button at McLaren, is reported to join the team. It's believed his role will be non-travelling.

- Felipe Massa replaces Pastor Maldonado, which means the team will have a very experienced driver onboard first time since 2011. But it also means the biggest sponsor of Williams by significant margin (and reportedly 5th biggest sponsorship deal among all teams) is needed to be replaced.

Sponsorship:

Claire Williams revealed Williams have already signed a deal with a new partner and it will be announced at the beginning of next year. It's not clear what kind of sponsor did she refer to. Of course the team will be chasing some Brazilian sponsorship, where Massa declared his help, but it may be also a Qatari sponsorship (Frank in one of recent interviews claimed he still hopes the team can capitalise on Qatar) or just a company from another part of the world which can be interested in taking the most visible places on the car after PDVSA or maybe even a spot of title sponsor, which remains free at Grove-based team since 2011. It's also rumoured that Petrobras want to join one team in 2015 and supply it with fuel, and Williams seems to be an obvious candidate.

Car:

The team have already tested some of 2014 parts on the car during FPs' this year. Some of them have even brought improvement in performance of 2013 car, that's why Bottas' strong race in Austin was possible. Some time ago Symonds suggested Williams would consider buying a gearbox from Mercedes (in recent years, Williams have always developed their own gearbox, which could have been a part of the problem, since teams like Force India and Sauber were buying them from other teams and could concentrate their resources on aerodynamics). But now it's reported Williams keep developing their own gearbox for 2014, since their engineers believe they have a solution which is better suited to the aerodynamics of FW36. The team have also in sight a possibility of supplying Force India, or even Mercedes in their gearboxes.

Summary:

The team faces big changes before 2014, after disastrous 2013. Let's hope they bring more of a long-term improvement in performance than similar changes after 2011. Claire had said that she hoped Williams would be able to have some more announcement slightly after season's end. Let's wait and see if the team can confirm some new engineers and sponsors, and if they can turn-around the performance of their car. With budget, facilities and heritage they have, it's unacceptable to be beaten by teams like Force India or Sauber so many years in row. Williams team has been a sad case of not using their budget properly in recent years, just like Toyota was several years ago.

Auto Motor und Sport said Williams, for instance, already has 1500 kilometres clocked up on its new 8-speed gearbox on a Toyota test facility in Cologne.
The Grove team's new technical boss Pat Symonds said: "Usually, with big rule changes, the one who delivers reliability over pure performance is the one who wins in the end."

Looks like 2014 will be a transition year for Williams, the changes in personnel came too late to have a big impact on the FW36 sadly.

Thanks for the post. Interesting - and promising. Regarding finances I guess the PDVSA severance-payment is quite substantial. Claire Williams said something about people would understand what went on when they see their 2014 profit&loss sheet. I reckon this will make them well financed for 2014, particularly if they get new sponsors on board. If they could land Petrobras or some Quatar-based entity as titlesponsor from 2015 it would be great. There have also been rumors about Williams looking for money in Russia and other eastblock countries like Uzbekistan. A good start to 2014 would make that an awful lot easier. Go Williams!

Auto Motor und Sport said Williams, for instance, already has 1500 kilometres clocked up on its new 8-speed gearbox on a Toyota test facility in Cologne.
The Grove team's new technical boss Pat Symonds said: "Usually, with big rule changes, the one who delivers reliability over pure performance is the one who wins in the end."

Looks like 2014 will be a transition year for Williams, the changes in personnel came too late to have a big impact on the FW36 sadly.

Transition year or not, I'm not sure Williams are going to improve their grid position unless Coughlan had penned a good design. My gut feeling is that the Renault powered teams, with the exception of Caterham, will have a performance advantage.

I'd love to see them do well next year, but I seem to recall that in an interview with BBC, Claire Williams said that they were concentrating more on 2015 than next year, since thats when all the people they have will have been the most help.

Still, the problems that they had this year seemed to mostly stem from not getting their EBD to work properly, so hopefully they should be more competitive anyways

Do you think Williams will be using their flywheel tecnology for energy storing on the 36? I have read that they will use engine and energy harvesting systems from Merc - but so far nothing on the storing system.

Flywheel will probably have som clear advantage on cooling- but for other pros/cons I don't know. And packaging should not be so critical- as the amount of fuel is reduced by 1/3rd.

I for one would welcome a Williams revival, hopefully they may make one with the new regs. After the false dawn of Barcelona in 2012 they've had a pretty poor time of it for a once great team. The fact that their coanda exhaust was a disaster this year until they ditched it completely, only then did they become reasonably competitive with the midfield.

The Mercedes package should be good news for the team but again it is yet another engine change which usually doesn't bear so well in the first season. The thing is everyone is starting from a clean sheet of paper under the general reset of the new rules, so it might not be so much of an impact.

The team appears to be upbeat about its finances, obviously a settlement with PDVSA and rumours about sponsorship from Brazil with Massa on board. They've strengthened their technical staff, most notably in the Aero department and with Pat Symonds pulling the strings, they could re-emerge from the periphery of F1. I certainly hope so.

Interesting.. what were the period of races in which it got really bad , that you shook your head in disaray.

Australia- Rosberg had a podium pace but they lost it through a stupid strategy. Perhaps you can recall that supersoft allowed you to run with decent pace for 5 or so laps in that race. Williams were for sure aware of that, because Nico himself said after FPSs that these tyres can only last 2 laps. Yet Williams set him for a clearly longer stint on supersoft than any other driver in that race (15 laps), so he was losing place after place in the final couple of laps, where his tyres gave up and he was running 4 seconds slower on a lap than others. Not to mention that one of his pit stop took 20 seconds due to some problems with fitting wheels properly.

Malaysia- Rosberg was leading the race comfortably for the first dozen of laps, but then team got it all wrong in changeable conditions. Nico fell down to 8th despite no fault of himself. He said someting like "we were on wrong tyres all the time" AFAIR.

China- They pitted Nico from 7th behind SC to fuel him more and he ended up at the back of the pack. The team admitted after the race it had been a wrong decision. After that they also called him for intermediates too early so he had an additional, unnecessary pit stop.

Monaco- Pretty much the opposite of Australia. Nico had a 10 laps shorter than his opponents final stint on supersoft tyres, which were much quicker and lasted comfortably for big enough amount of laps, so he was losing time and had to carry additional fuel and take a longer 1st pit stop. Knowing how tight it was between him, Massa, Raikkonen and Webber just after the 1st pit stop, it's more than likely he lost at least 1 place due to this wrong strategy choice. Also Nakajima's strategy was strange. Too much fuel to run away from cars behind him, but not enough to make it 1 stop strategy, like some others successfully did.

Turkey- Nakajima lost something which looked like 6th place due to a poor pit stop.

Germany- Wrong timing in Q2, drivers were not at the track when they should be in mixed weather session and they ended up with low starting grid positions. It was quite a loss because Rosberg proved good pace around Nurburgring making a 4th place finish from 15th on the grid despite technical problem that costed him some tenths on every single lap in second half of the race.

And apart from these, there were plenty of situations Rosberg lost a place or two because his pit stop was 1 or 2 laps too early, too late, or took a bit too much time. Pit stop times were generally poor and there were often problems with fitting wheels properly.

It was a year when Williams had the car that should be fighting for 3rd in WCC. Nakajima wasn't the only reason of why they finished so far from it.

Yes, they've been, but that was mainly due to securing the huge deal with PDVSA in 2011. It's a good sign they can afford so many new engineers after the exit of their main sponsor. Yes, PDVSA have to pay for getting out of the contract, but it's a one-off and I'm not sure if Williams would be risking the obvious rise of salaries if they haven't any decent replacement already lined-up for the long-term future. Or maybe they actually do risk because that's what new technical leadership thinks to be the best way to move forward. Or maybe they're hoping budget cap really works for 2015.

They have really struggled since around the time BMW left to have a good budget to chase the McLarens & Ferraris of this world

That's not what I asked though. There's a lot of room between having a budget equal of McLaren or Ferrari and constant threat of going bust. My understanding is that Williams hasn't got those problems, and that's partly thanks to expanding into other businesses. There's a lot of people around here who seem to think that finishing in the lower half of the WCC implies the team is spiralling into debt.

That's not what I asked though. There's a lot of room between having a budget equal of McLaren or Ferrari and constant threat of going bust. My understanding is that Williams hasn't got those problems, and that's partly thanks to expanding into other businesses. There's a lot of people around here who seem to think that finishing in the lower half of the WCC implies the team is spiralling into debt.

I agree. Financially speaking Williams is on stable grounds, if you compare them for examble to lotus.

Transition year or not, I'm not sure Williams are going to improve their grid position unless Coughlan had penned a good design. My gut feeling is that the Renault powered teams, with the exception of Caterham, will have a performance advantage.

Interesting considering that's completely against what most people are expecting in regards to engine performance.

Been a tifoso as long as i can remember. However, one team that has a special place in my heart is Williams. Yes, they did try to work a deal with McLaren to screw Ferrari over in '97, but i guess i have forgiven them (not McLaren though ). The first time i read an interview with Sir Frank, i had my sodding heart welling up with warmth and respect. It is how Sir Frank conducts business which is in stark contrast to how Ron does at McLaren. Ron would try to sneak your drivers/ sponsors etc., whereas Sir Frank would not hold someone down (with the exception of JB who they tried to hold to the contract he signed with them.) Nothing has changed since over a decade now. It would be really nice to see Williams winning a GP again (wait, Maldo won in 2012 for them ) and consistently so. Mercedes engines will help in that matter as they were the most powerful unit there and no one is expecting a change of pace as yet. so definitely there will be movement up the ranks, but how far up remains to be seen. i really wish to see Williams and Ferrari duking it out. May be, just may be, Massa may redeem himself and settle scores from 2008. Let us see how this season plays out.